Pastor Sophea and Jenny Sem
We’d like to introduce you to Pastor Sophea Sem, just behind him, his second daughter Abby, his eldest daughter Elise, his youngest son, Elijah, his co-laborer in the ministry and beautiful wife, Jenny, and youngest daughter, Zanna! (Missing from this picture is there eldest son Joseph, currently working and studying in the US.) And yes, they’re as fun as they look.
Pastor Sophea Sem is a Cambodian national, who accepted the Lord in 1997 and entered the ministry part-time in 1999 as a youth pastor and small group leader. He later came on staff at the church full-time, working with the youth, with outreach to English students, discipleship groups among the students, and leading small group Bible studies. In 2001 he was serving as an assistant pastor in New Life Fellowship, with Chuck McCaul.
Jenny Ringer came to Cambodia in 1997, as a missionary intern with the McCaul family. She lived and worked with the McCauls’ for one year, from 1997 to 1998, and then returned to Portland, OR, where she finished a Bachelors of Theology at Portland Bible College. Upon graduation in 1999, she returned again to Cambodia, to work with the church.
Sophea and Jenny were married on January of 2003 in Phnom Penh where Sophea served as a pastor at New Life Fellowship, Phnom Penh. A few months after their wedding Sophea and Jenny both felt the Lord leading them to help pastor the then struggling New Life Fellowship Phnom Penh Thmey church plant, where they have continued to minister for the past 20+ years. Their heart is to see the church grow and to reach out to the neighboring community, Cambodia as a whole, and to the world. They have seen tremendous growth and continue to see God work in the hearts of the Khmer people in Cambodia.
OIL 